Like many couples, Dick and Angel had long dreamed of living in France,
but where others might settle for a modest bolthole in the French
countryside, the Strawbridges fell in love with a 19th-century fairytale
château, complete with 45 rooms, seven outbuildings, 12 acres of land
and its own moat.
Throwing caution to the wind, Dick and Angel swapped their two-bedroom
flat in East London for an abandoned and derelict castle in the heart of
the Loire valley and embarked on the adventure of a lifetime with their
two young children Arthur and Dorothy.
Sharing their full journey for the first time, A Year at the Château
follows Dick and Angel from when they first moved to France in the
depths of winter and found bedrooms infested with flies, turrets
inhabited by bats, the wind rattling through cracked windows, and just
one working toilet, which flushed into the moat, through to the
monumental efforts that went into readying the château for their
unforgettable wedding and their incredibly special first Christmas.
Along the way we'll read glorious descriptions of rural life in France,
with charming characters, delicious food and wonderful seasonal produce,
together with the extraordinary list of renovations and restorations
Dick and Angel completed, many of which were never shown on TV.
As warm and entertaining as their much-loved show, A Year at the
Château is a truly irresistible story of adventure and heart, epic
ambitions and a huge amount of hard graft.
